Events, such as meetings, may be recorded to save important information. Often, a video of the meeting may contain important information which may be retrieved by an individual who may not have been able to attend. During the meeting, a presenter or participant may have a paper handout in order to enhance their presentation. The discussion pertaining to a particular handout or slide may be a significant aspect of the meeting. A subsequent viewer of the video may wish to view only a segment of the video pertaining to a particular paper handout.
Paper handouts are widely used and individuals feel comfortable interacting with them during a meeting. Individuals can make notes and annotations on the handouts without consciously thinking about how to do it. This is not the case with most electronic documents and devices, especially for a gathering of meeting participants who may have not been trained in the technology. The reason is that during a meeting when people must pay attention and participate, only the simplest technologies having an unobtrusive form factor and an undemanding user interface are usable.
The Cornell Lecture Browser allows for a user to view a segment of a video pertaining to a digital document in a specified format. The Cornell Lecture Browser matches the specified digital document to a section of a videotaped event. However, in certain scenarios, a digital pre-formatted file of the paper handout may not be available in all events. A paper handout may be the only document available at the meeting. Further, creating a specified digital form of a paper handout may require special equipment or knowledge not available to a participant.
In contrast, a paper handout may be easily scanned to create a digital file. Scanning equipment is relatively inexpensive and easy to operate. Nevertheless, in scanning the paper handout and/or slide, a number of problems may be encountered which do not have to be overcome in using the Cornell Lecture Browser. First, the scanned document may have substantial margins which would hinder matching of the scanned paper handout to a segment of the video tape. Second, the scanned document may be slightly rotated during scanning resulting in a skewed scanned document which may hinder matching of the scanned document to a segment of the video. Third, the paper handout may be in monochrome while the video may be videotaped in color further hindering a match between the scanned document and a segment of the video. Fourth, the paper handout may be scanned with handwritten annotations further complicating the matching of the scanned document and a segment of the video.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method, system and article of manufacture containing software which links a scanned document to a segment of a video. The method, system and article of manufacture should allow for linking a scanned document having substantial margins and rotated during scanning. The method, system and article of manufacture should be able to link a monochrome scanned document to a color video, or vice versa.